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Doug Polk's "Emergency Podcast". Bryn Kenney's response awaited...
Tikay10
Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 161,097
Not much in high stakes poker surprises me these days, but there was a stunning Doug Polk podcast last night.
He interviews a chap (who, it must be said, was off his head on weed) called Martin Zamani, & it was an explosive expose. (If any of it was true).
Here's the Doug Polk Podcast. WARNING - It's about an hour long, but if you make it past the first 5 minutes, you'll not be able to switch it off. Alternatively, two or three Posts below I've linked to PokerNews UK who have reported the story, that will only take two minutes to read.
Here's the podcast;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKKgjlNGKOk
He interviews a chap (who, it must be said, was off his head on weed) called Martin Zamani, & it was an explosive expose. (If any of it was true).
Here's the Doug Polk Podcast. WARNING - It's about an hour long, but if you make it past the first 5 minutes, you'll not be able to switch it off. Alternatively, two or three Posts below I've linked to PokerNews UK who have reported the story, that will only take two minutes to read.
Here's the podcast;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKKgjlNGKOk
Comments
Bryn Kenney: Ghosting, Collusion, Scamming, Warlord Shamans and Frog Poison
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/bryn-kenney-ghosting-collusion-scamming-warlord-shamans-frog-poison-1806389/
Based on what was said (which may or may not be true...) Bryn Kenney, GG Poker & many others have some explaining to do. There have been no responses so far, or not that I'm aware of.
https://www.pokernews.com/news/2022/04/bryn-kenney-martin-zamani-cheating-accusations-41076.htm
I've no idea what his Online earnings are, but I'm sure someone here will know. Safe to say "substantial".
Quite hard to get a grasp of the depth of his relationship with GG Poker where - according to last night's Podcast, he seems to have some unusual privileges. The world of Staking & "horses" is a whole complex topic, but here in the UK, a player having access to another players account (to deposit or withdraw) would be an interesting one.
https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=182652
I wonder why someone with that talent would stoop so low , if he stooped at all
Love the idea that trashing the whistleblower is in any way relevant. If he's lying, he is a terrible person. But-if he is telling the truth-he is still a terrible person.
Some of this may or may not be true. But let's start by focusing on what is almost certain to be true.
1. GG Poker pays a lot of money to sponsor certain pros. 1 of which is Bryn Kenney EDIT: CORRECTION. He was the main site pro 2018-20. Parted ways, without any reason being given
2. GG Poker has a system that is unlike other sites. For example:-
3. It has a system whereby anyone who is being staked is supposedly shown on the system, for all to see
4. Anyone can see how much every player has "won" (ie turnover)
5. It sends banner messages when there is potential overlay
6. It is clear that Mr Kenney has been staking horses outside of the system used by GG
I do not know if Mr Kenney has been overtly incentivising his horses to collude. But, with the greatest of respect, that is not the key issue. Suppose it is a $500 qualifier to a $5,000 MTT with 3 seats guaranteed. Suppose 4 of the last 6 are secretly being staked by Mr Kenney. Who thinks the other 2 players are going to be picked on? Who is going to spot the chip dumping? Who has realised that the MTT didn't end with overlay because of the deal in place?
Poker is a game of incomplete information. But it appears some have rather less information than others. The only doubt is how much-not if.
If GG sponsor someone in this position, then their licence should come under intense scrutiny.
The UKGC needs to investigate. Because at least 1 of the players involved currently (or at least very recently) resides in the UK.
Glass houses and stones spring to mind, Mr multi accounter.
All that being said, if you openly ban players for winning to much and are honest about that been the reason then that is one thing. However there are multiple accusations that they have banned players under the guise of responsible gambling who are consistent winners and only cash out.
I have no way of verifying these claims but having seen numerous claims of this on 2+2 and youtube, it is pretty alarming. Generally because in the UK legislation implies they will obligated to share their responsible gambling info with other sites. Bearing in mind other sites can face 7 figure fines for letting a "vulnerable person" gamble too much no other site will touch that person if they would even be legally allowed to anyway.
Hence GG doing this effectively bans a winning poker player for live from any and all legal poker sites if they reside in the UK. Pretty serious.
Also they ban huds which is fine sky poker bans huds but If I was playing on sky poker and also playing on site X whatever site X is and I had poker tracker running for Site x but not for sky poker tables Sky poker would not ban or penalize me because it is utterly irrelevant to sky poker tables. However GG have allegedly banned people for this and seized their bankroll.
If you want to go after winning poker players and ban them then fair enough but dont go stealing peoples bankrolls and using pathetic excuses to call them cheats and or responsible gambling to get rid of them. Just say straight up you win too much we think its bad for out bottom line your banned cash out your roll.
Now it turns out GG do allow winning players but only if they are part of GGs poker cheating ring.
This is why I never made an account with GG and never will. one of my biggest fears in poker is that GG one day buy sky poker.
No poker site bans a player just because he is a winning poker player. Why would they care? Ordinarily, they win at the expense of other poker players. When a poker site will not care-it's all about the rake. Except the relatively rare occasions when it does affect the casino. Examples:-
1. A few like-minded individuals get together. They wait to check for a Qualifier (occasionally a Regular MTT) that has no runners. They then register the minimum number of players, go all-in first hand, and split the proceeds. Do that occasionally, and you'll likely get away with it. Do it 30 times a week, and you will get banned
2. People who work in secret syndicates. In order to tag team the unwary. Everyone thinks they are the first to think of it. So-for example-2X your mate in the BB if you will fold to a 3-bet from the BB, 2.2X if you have a genuine hand. Or flat your mate's raise (or min raise) when you have AA to price the unwary in. Or chip dump to mate, never to the others. Trouble is-these techniques can be spotted with modern software. So again-banned
3. On GG, secret staking, avoiding the staking platform. There is going to be a scale where that is a ban. Or multi-accounting
4. Staked players who may well be winning players, but are in make-up that they cannot afford
Guess what? Poker sites only ban people who fall into categories that can get them into trouble. They will not always be right. But they have genuine reasons.
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/giraf-apotheosis-speak-out-about-scum-poker-1798663/
Granted I do not have tabs as much as I did and yes the multi-accounting incident was a black mark on Bonomo. He was 19 or 20 at the time from memory.
Remember reading his apology back then and he was saying a lot of other players were doing the multi-reg thing on Pokerstars as well. Looked a bit like 'well others do it so it's ok' which could be taken as him not taking full responsibility for wrong-doing. Was a bit disappointed when I heard the news on this as had looked up to him.
Both were prominent posters on 2+2 back in the day and even at a young age their hearts where in the right place. Very helpful, informative and very respectful to other players on the forum. That's my memory of the pair.
I will always have an angelic view of sorts due to this. Things may have changed since and can't say I stay up to date on the poker scene and this is before watching the video in the OP. Will get round to watching it as it sounds compelling.
I think most people forgave him a long time ago.
Watched about 20 mins yesterday and read some of the 2p2 thread, thanks for posting Tikay, it's utter fascinating. If true and early read is there is definitely something big in this - whether everything is true another matter.
The greed of some in this game is beyond shocking and do find it quite sad.
Always got bad vibes from GG. Wasn't too upset when they made it virtually impossible for UK players to deposit on there.
1. GG does not ban winning players, of course, but it does make life very hard for a UK professional poker player to deposit on their. Simply because they do not have a regular income. These are the stories we hear as it is them posting it on the forums and such. This is the UKGC rules, not GGs.
2. Bryn Kenney still does have a working relationship with GG but it is more behind the scenes now. Any player that is backed by Bryn and is in his stable has a tag on their account (and there are a lot of players), so GG can do an investigation and see if colluding has been taken place between the same stable.
3. GG do have a pretty good system in place to catch people using RTA. Accounts are banned every month for being caught and money is returned to players that have been in the games as fairly as possible.
4. There are quite a few high profile names that were caught and have a life ban and I think they will be happy to ban anyone they can.
5. The owner of GG is very much do as much as possible for the recreational players and a s little as possible for the regular players. If the site attracts the recreational players, the recreational players will attract the professional players . The point is, if anyone is abusing or cheating the system he will be more than happy to ban them no matter how big the name.
@mcg899
Excellent post, it's good to get a bit of balance in these things.
"Any player that is backed by Bryn and is in his stable has a tag on their account (and there are a lot of players), so GG can do an investigation and see if colluding has been taken place between the same stable."
That's interesting, but how do GG know if he has "declared" everyone he stakes or backs? Are they & we to assume he is 100% squeaky clean in declaring them all?
Have to say, I'm not clear on BK's role with GG, but if it includes back office access - & it appears he has - he should not be allowed to play on the site, surely? Back office access would allow him to see real names, P & L of individual players & much much more.
I do know he does not have access to the system or can see peoples accounts. He has a contact directly in GG who he will go through. That person will do all they admin.
He is basically an agent for GG but doesn’t have back office access.